Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus help over 20 million people live meaningful lives with less through their website, books, podcast, and documentary. The Minimalists have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Forbes, TIME, ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, CBC, and NPR.

Does This Add Value to My Life?

Each of my belongings—my kitchenware, furniture, clothes, car—functions either as a tool or adds positive aesthetic value to my life; that is, as a minimalist, every possession serves a purpose or brings me joy.

Over time, though, situations’ll change—they always do. So I’m forced to ask the same important question over and over and over again: Does this thing add value to my life?

And it’s not just material possessions at which I posit this query: I ask it in regard to relationships, social media, and any other potentially superfluous matters in life.

I constantly ask this question because circumstances constantly change: because something adds value to my life today doesn’t mean it’ll add value to my life tomorrow, so I keep asking and I keep adjusting accordingly.